Australia will take revenge
Cummins and his team have the pain of losing the series on their own soil in the last two times (2018-19 and 2020-21) and they have come with the intention of taking revenge this time. Well, it won’t be that easy for them as the pitch can take a turn from day one. The series between India and Australia since 2001 has seen better cricket than the Ashes. If this tribe of Australian cricket team has to match the players of the 2004 team like Matthew Hayden, Justin Langer, Glenn McGrath or Adam Gilchrist, then this series will have to be won.
Steve Smith himself has said that winning a series in India is bigger than the Ashes. Rohit has missed all the Tests against the big teams due to injury or illness. Be it a series against South Africa in 2022 or a Test against England. Now the challenge before him is to take India to the World Test Championship final once again like Virat Kohli. For this, India will have to keep a margin of two matches in victory.
head to head
Total Matches: 102
India Won: 30
Australia won: 42
Draw: 28
Tie: 01
matches in india
Matches: 50
India won: 21
Australia won: 13
Tie: 01
Draw: 15
Spin India’s biggest strength
Rohit’s Brahmastra is his spin quartet, three of whom are sure to play. Similarly, their batsmen will also have to play Lyon carefully. This series is a means for Rohit to include himself in the list of great captains. They will definitely miss Rishabh Pant and have to see how he compensates for it. Kona Bharath is effective as a wicket-keeper but it is difficult to say anything about his ability against the Australian bowling despite a triple century at Ranji level.
How will be the playing XI?
The Delhi bowlers troubled him a lot in the Ranji match at Kotla. Ishaan Kishan is definitely a better batsman but the team management will not want to take any risk regarding wicketkeeping as he has not even handled this responsibility in Tests. KL Rahul could be dropped but sending him at the press conference two days before the Test means his place is safe despite the poor performance. This means that one of the match winners like Gill or Suryakumar will have to sit out.
The biggest decision for Rohit will be between Akshar or Kuldeep and Akshar looks more likely. If India go with four spinners, then Ravichandran Ashwin can be handed the new ball. By the way, fast bowlers can also get reverse swing on a dry looking pitch, so in such a situation, Mohammad Shami and Mohammad Siraj will prove to be useful.
Australia, on the other hand, could field Agar as Lyon’s partner because of his better batting record down the order. Scott Boland will handle the new ball with Cummins. Australia have four good batsmen in which David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Travis Head and Alex Carey are set to play. In the absence of Cameron Green, the spare batsman will be either Peter Handscomb or Matt Renshaw.
Both teams are like this
India: Rohit Sharma (Captain), KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Shubman Gill, Ravindra Jadeja, KS Bharat, Ravichandran Ashwin, Akshar Patel, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Kuldeep Yadav, Suryakumar Yadav, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat, Ishan Kishan .
Australia: Pat Cummins (c), David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Travis Head, Alex Carey, Matt Renshaw, Peter Handscomb, Nathan Lyon, Ashton Agar, Scott Boland, Lance Morris, Mitchell Swepson, Todd Murphy, Josh Hazlewood (Not Available), Cameron Green (Not Available), Mitchell Starc (from 2nd Test).
IND vs AUS: These two players will not get a chance, Surya will debut, playing XI can be like this!
Source: navbharattimes.indiatimes.com
: Language Inputs
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